Slitherine

Hello All!

We have released the very first beta of the upcoming Allied Corps. It is still a bit rough around the edges, but we wanted to kick off the testing as soon as possible, so that we have more time on balancing the campaign. In this post I will describe what this beta includes and what it does not, and what to look our for.

Allied Campaign

Allied Corps beta 1 includes the whole new Allied Corps campaign, and most of it is playable. You can proceed from the first mission and up to Market Garden (which is the 24th mission in the campaign). The remaining 6 missions after Market Garden are not finished yet, and are not playable. If you reach Market Garden before the release of beta 2, please save your game and do not finish the scenario. Also, all scenarios from Allied Campaign can be played standalone, using Scenario tab.

Release version of allied campaign will have a number of entry points, allowing you to start the war in Africa, in Italy or in France. However, in the first beta entry points have been disabled. At this point we want to concentrate on the normal "full" campaign path, which most people will play after release. The first 8 missions (up to Beda Fomm) comprise the new allied tutorial, which starts really small, but gets increasingly complicated. Unlike the base Panzer Corps campaign, these missions are already based on real WW2 events, and you are fighting Italians as British in Africa. The campaign starts as british one, but eventually the americans join in, and from that point on you can use a mixed GB+US core force. We've got a number of new allied units, SE allied units, allied awards, allied heroes, and all this stuff is already in place.

So, what to look out for?
- First and foremost, please post any impressions about the individual scenarios in their respective topics.
- Let us know what you think about the new units, their balance and stats.
- Give us feedback on the new briefings. If you spot any mistake or typo, let us know too.

Engine 1.20

In addition to the new campaign, this beta allows you to play any past content which is installed on your PC. Wehrmacht campaign, Afrika campaign and all the DLCs are playable in this beta. Game engine has been upgraded to version 1.20, and a number of game rules were tweaked and changed. Full list of changes is available here. To make sure the changes really improve the gameplay, not break it, we encourage everybody to try the old content using new rules, and share your impressions here. This is very important, because we do not want to fragment the game and use different rules in different campaigns, but improve the experience across all the existing campaigns. So let us know what works and what does not.

What's NOT included yet

There are several things which are not in this beta. We will fill these gaps in the next betas. But for now, the following is missing:

- Multiplayer maps. Allied Corps will include several new MP maps, but they are not available yet.
- UI updates. The UI is beta 1 is not updated, but in the future we will add a whole new allied skin.
- New tiles and map visual polishing. While the maps are fully functional, no effort have been made yet to make them look pretty. This is a task for the future.
- Library. Just like Afrika, the new expansion will add more pages to the Library, but these are not available yet.

If you signed up and did not get the email yet can you still get in on the beta? I have a friend who is dying to play this one!!

Blitz1945 wrote:If you signed up and did not get the email yet can you still get in on the beta? I have a friend who is dying to play this one!!

It depends on duration of the beta. It still is possible that a new batch of beta players join in the final beta phase.

In the finished product, will there be a plummy upper class English Officer voiceover for the mission briefs?

I think it may add something if there were.

Balla

Ballacraine wrote:In the finished product, will there be a plummy upper class English Officer voiceover for the mission briefs?

I think it may add something if there were.

Balla

That would be nice.

Beginning Communique:


"Defend these for as long as required, fresh orders will be issued...."


Better "Defend these for as long as required; fresh orders will be issued...."

Thanks for feedback but we haven't proof read briefings yet so save comments for next week!

When you upgrade a core unit all experience is lost at the moment.

And you can also make a unit overstrength all the way to 15 without actually having the required experience on the unit.


and after some reading I guess these are changes and not bugs but still they feel like bugs

Yep I saw that 2 was able to get my 25 pounder up to 5 stars

Yep I saw that 2 was able to get my 25 pounder up to 5 stars. Also in the Italian offensive I was able to beat the Italians back to their fields and capture them yet I lost because I didn't fall back

Just got the beta today. Up to the Culdron scenario and these are my first impressions:
1)unit overstrength when not at 5 stars - may be correct but agree it still feels like a bug, just not used to it yet, maybe.
2)British artillary seems a bit weak and vastly short ranged
3) hit the "all eqp" cheat just to see what was out there - can't tell regular units from SE units except for fighters also thought that there may be some US units there for the Brits
4) I DO like the way it "ramps" up b ystarting small and growing
5)The axis units don't seem to be affected too much by artillary (i.e. suppression) even the weak Italian units

Waiting to get to the point where the US comes in to see how it plays out.

you can buy a Hurricane MKI, but not deploy in Fort Capuzzo or later in Battle of Girba

And you can also make a unit overstrength without having the required experience on the unit.

In Sidi Barrani I have a light cruiser but no deployment hex.

during the development of sidi barrani I have 2 slots ( losses) , buy a Engineer, the game charged the cost of unit but not give it to me???

do335b6 wrote:Yep I saw that 2 was able to get my 25 pounder up to 5 stars. Also in the Italian offensive I was able to beat the Italians back to their fields and capture them yet I lost because I didn't fall back

Actually, a prompt instructed me to fall back and the beginning communique instructed that.

We have a problem Houston!

When beginning the Anzio Landing I see no hex white spaces to deploy on the ocean. But, when I click on the Spitfires to deploy it works. The ten (10) white hex deployment spaces will only accept fighter planes but nothing else, (tanks, infantry). I tried purchasing and the same results, only accepting figter planes???

Italian units seem to stay suppressed once they got without recovering from one round to the next.

Seen this now a few times (Battle of Girba, etc.)


Edit: regarding the changes in 1.20, this might be because of the replacement. Ignore my post as I cant prove it the other way. ^^

Guys, regarding overstrenght units: have a closer look here http://slitherine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=148&t=42325

Rudankort wrote:Overstrength is not limited by the number of stars

This is probably the most controversial change, but I wanted to give it a try. With overstrength lost in upgrades, it becomes a strategic decision when to apply it and to which units. But in early game overstrength does not play a major role, because the units do not have much experience on them. It kicks in later, when the units are already very powerful, with better equipment, more experience and 2-3 heroes on each unit.

So, I decided to try to disconnect overstrength mechanics from experience. In 1.20 beta1 it can be applied to any unit, up to 5 points, from the very beginning of the campaign. Of course, all the rest rules still apply: you cannot overstrenth using free green replacements, and you cannot quickly restore overstrength in the course of the battle - it still comes one point at a time.

Let us know how this change affects your play. Do we want to keep it, or revert to the old way?

I noticed on the second mission the Italian units seem to do nothing. They just defend and never use their artillery. Third mission all the Italian units are named 1st!

I had 2 fighters deployed in Taranto and when Sidi Barrani started, I only had 1 fighter. There also was no prestige reimbursed for the units loss.
In Taranto I purchased a 3rd fighter but it would not place it in my unit screen for deployment. The prestige was reimbursed each time I tried and the unit was not allocated.
Sidi Barrani turn 13 I took Sofafi and I received 50 prestige points. A pop up screen advised that I get 300 prestige for its capture, the prestige was not allocated. The prestige did allocate after another unit was selected.
Cauldron had many Italian trucks that just drove around, Italian and German units would not attack the Allied combat units, they would attack minefields even though there were Allied combat units that could be damaged or destroyed with ease. Italian infantry near the 1,3 airfield did not engage at all, the German armor in the 12,13 area also did not attack.
First El Alamein the German armor in the south does not attack units attacking them. Breakthrough units are not attacked in the German/Italian interior.

do335b6 wrote:Yep I saw that 2 was able to get my 25 pounder up to 5 stars. Also in the Italian offensive I was able to beat the Italians back to their fields and capture them yet I lost because I didn't fall back

I also was able to do this.

Perhaps some of the first wave should be 12's to encourage the fall back.

Lee

Received my Beta yesterday and I am now playing the Tobruk scenario. So far so good. I am playing on level 3/5 so not too tough. I thought the earlier scenarios were a bit easy but this one (Tobruk) is quite taxing. It makes good use of the massive map which is impressive. The in level missions definitely add some extra gameplay which was missing in other versions of Panzer Corps. No bugs up to now. I clicked on an allied and Axis unit at the same time causing a momentary glitch but the engine recovered very quickly. Seems pretty stable to me. Will play some more and get back soon.